


Lament of the Dead

by impish_nature



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, banshee - Freeform, creatures of the woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 12:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6610924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A banshee in the woods gets a surprise visitor.</p>
<p>Or - Stan Pines pushes his luck and for some reason death omens seem to have a soft spot for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lament of the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> AN: This may end up being a series but not for now. Just the one off. This all started from @notllorstel‘s joml au that I accidentally ended up adding a banshee to in a headcanon post o.o should I tag this as a different au? most probably...anywho! hope you enjoy ♥

A shiver passed through the forest.

A full moon hung low in the sky, the small grove, deep in the heart of the woods awash with its silver gaze. The leaves stirred in an almost non-existent breeze, the rustling the only sound that seemed to permeate the tension slowly brewing, deep and dark in the core of the sleepy hollow. The world stopped, just for a moment, a soft lull as the night grew sharply colder. The thrum of the night and its creatures not yet in full sway as the creatures of the day fell deeply into fitful slumbers.

A figure, held in the middle of the forming tension, shifted softly, a small quick movement of white dancing between the leaves of a tree. The only indication that she was even there, perched on the bough of the tree and listening intently to the whispers that only she could hear.

_Death wanders the woods tonight._

There was no denying the words. They were always true. Large unblinking eyes turned to the source of the feeling, far out of her physical view but clearly visible to her other senses. She jumped down from the tree, her feet touching the ground without a sound. There was no reason to rush, no great need to save the man that had stumbled foolishly into the forest. She need only give a warning, as was her duty.

It was not up to her what happened after that, nor did she particularly care whether the human heeded the warning or not.

She had lived for far too long, seen far too many humans come and go to truly feel sorrow for their passing any longer. Not when most no longer saw her as a warning, a prayer to look after them but instead as an instigator – a willing participant in their deaths. A fearful sight to behold that all fled from. Gone were the days of old when her kind would keep track of the great families and were spoken about in hushed respectful tones, revered and feared all at once. Gone were the days when they would flock together, to warn and protect those whose destinies were far greater than just one mortal man or woman’s life.

Those times had passed, faded away in time along with those who believed in her kind. The world had become a very different place in her lifespan.

And so she had wandered, lost in the new world that no longer wanted nor needed her.

This place had called to her, drawn her in when nowhere else had. _This is the place._ The voices had told her, the same voices that whispered the fates of mortals. And just as she answered those calls, she responded to the one telling her to take root here without question.

This was her forest. Her domain. And she would continue to caution the reckless and foolhardy of their actions before it was too late, even if many no longer listened to the echoing wail from the depths of the forest.

She shook her head, clearing the old wistful thoughts of times passed. It was not the time to worry about what once was. She took a deep breath, the air around her visibly humming as it prepared for the shattering sound that would soon reverberate through the very cores of the trees that surrounded her. The harsh sharp keen that would rip through the air and leave the forest in dark breathlessness before the world continued on its way and left the human that it was intended for on their own to make their decision, their life hanging in the balance.

Heed the scream and go running fearfully back to life, or ignore the signs and step forward into death’s sweet embrace.

And just as quickly as the moment of preparation had started, the moment was broken by an unexpected visitor.

Her scream was cut short, a small indignant choked off sound escaping her instead as the human she was trying to warn fell into her grove.

The two stared at one another for a long moment, before the man in front of her tore his eyes away and glanced down at himself. She followed his gaze, a small bubble of shocked laughter that sounded foreign to her own ears left her as she noted he’d somehow managed to get himself hopelessly tangled in the vines that hid her home from view of the outside world. She pressed a hand to her lips, a small confused frown on her face as his eyes flicked back to hers. A small self-deprecating smile curled upwards on his face at the noise. She had not laughed in eons. Yet something about the man’s sheepish face and the obvious embarrassment he was trying to hide at having come crashing into her was so ridiculous that it had just slipped out without a thought.

The fact that the whispering voices had told her about him, only seemed to add to her mirth, a grin coiling up again behind her hand. She couldn’t remember the last time - or if there ever had been a time, when a human had seen her before she had sent them a warning. This was most peculiar. It sent a small thrum of curiosity through her at the notion.

It had been so long since she had felt anything other than neutrality to the world passing her by.

The thought sobered her up considerably, as she slunk back away from him. This was not the way of the world. This should not have happened. She should have just given her wail from the shadows and left him to his fate. Those that saw her were only meant to be those that were deemed important by the fates, those that truly needed to be told that they were going to die and that they had not yet done what they needed to do in the world. It felt like an eternity since the voices had actually screamed at her to save a life and not, instead, whispered half-heartedly, a verbal shrug to the lives and deaths of the creatures they were foretelling doom for. Yet this person had seen her, had found his way into her home without any knowledge of what he had stumbled across even though he should be nothing more than one of many strings of fate she held in the palm of her hand.

She paused again as he glanced up at the movement, his eyes betrayed his uncertainty at her quiet quick steps away from him. She gulped, a small edge of nerves to her now that her curiosity had abated. She had not been seen for so long but she did remember the last time she had shown herself. When a small child had been scared by her scream like she had wanted but had run in the wrong direction, towards the danger in their panic. She had taken pity on it, appeared in the direction it was running to give it one last chance.

It had worked, but not before she had seen the look of abject fear and horror levelled at her, the scream that rivalled her own at trying to help.

She knew of worse tales. Tales where her sisters, though unharmed, had been attacked by the humans they had tried to save.

The memories did nothing to quell her nerves in that moment.

His bright charming smile, however, catches her off guard a moment later when she hazards another look in his direction, her thoughts coming to a shuddering halt as he spoke.

“So…what’s a lovely lady like you doing all the way out here at this time of night?”

She blinked, another oddity she had not felt the need to perform in years as her head tilted sideways. _Lovely?_ No one had ever called her that before. “I-” Her voice, so disused other than for its ever-needed scream, came out as a painful croak that caught deep in her throat. The man winced sympathetically at her, a look of concern marring his features. Her frown deepened, eyebrows furrowing as she searches her mind for a logical explanation.

Why had she felt the need to justify herself?

She shook her head, taking another step away from him. Away from the anomaly that had skewed her routine, had made the world less ordered and known to the ageless being.

“Hey, wait!”

She stilled, her back turned towards the man. She bit her lip, body poised to run and vanish into the darkness, her bare feet shifting restlessly. She had no idea why she had listened to him, why she hadn’t just left when she had the chance.

Maybe it was because she still hadn’t had chance to warn him yet.

Maybe it was because she was just intrigued by what he might have to say. Listening to a kind voice other than the usual whispers, actually directed at her was proving to be a comfort she had not ever dreamed of needing.

“You- you really shouldn’t be wandering around this late, all on your own. Are you sure, I can’t – I don’t know. Walk you home or- uhh. This is coming out wrong, you probably think I’m being creepy.”

She shook her head, hearing a soft huff of air leave him in response. He didn’t seem creepy, not that the word ever really entered her vocabulary considering her kinds nature, but his words still made absolutely no sense to her as he stuttered and she felt the need to calm him ever so slightly.

“Yeah, well, can I walk you somewhere safe? Back into town, or something so that I know you can get home safely?”

She twisted her head back round to him. Her eyes were probably slightly disturbing if his suddenly worried expression was anything to go by, as she assessed the situation, eyes wide and unblinking as she scrutinised him.

Here was this human, this fragile, speck in a long chain of mortals standing before her. Yet somehow _he_ sought to protect _her_ from a danger he couldn’t possibly fathom when it was him that was truly knocking at death’s door.

He seemed so concerned for her welfare as he stood up straight, finally free of the vines that gripped him and offers his hand out placatingly towards her.

To say that the world felt back to front and completely out of her hands for once felt like a severe understatement of the circumstances.

She shook her head again, watching his face fall at the action but she refused to take heed of it this time, taking a few more steps away from him and his ever perplexing aura that had been sending her for a loop.

She stopped at the tree line, face full of confliction before she makes the decision to turn back to him one last time. His hopeful look was not lost on her but she ignores it in favour of what she intended to do.

She never had got a chance to warn him after all.

“Y-you…should return home. It’s n-not safe out here.”

She disappeared into the darkness before he had a chance to response, hidden tight behind a tree.

A small mocking voice in her head laughed ironically at her that maybe she should have offered to walk _him_ home.

If she wasn’t sure that her own biology did not work that way, she could have sworn she felt heat burning in her cheeks.

This was not how a banshee worked. She should have just screamed and been on her way. But somehow actually warning him had seemed the best approach, no matter how much her throat ached at the unusual movements she had just forced it into. It had felt so wrong and so right all at the same time to speak to the human. To actually converse, when she had not done so with anyone but another of her own kind and even those relationships had drifted far and wide.

She waited, silent and as still as stone as he shuffled around restlessly for a few moments. She could hear the way his steps took him forward and back in equal measures before he finally retreated and disappeared back towards the edge of the forest. She let out a gush of air, a high pitch sigh of relief at him heeding the warning before she stood up straight, back against the tree as she stared fretfully up at the moon.

She had become invested.

She bit her lip, toying with it as the voices hummed back to life, whispering that death had left and the crisis had been averted and another wave of relief coursed through her. But there shouldn’t have been a need or a want for the relief. He had not been important, just another human that had travelled through her home and come out the other side, one that would die another day whether or not she stopped him dying now.

For some reason the thought sent a stab of fear through her. She didn’t want to think of him dying.

Not the nice young man who had somehow found it easy to compliment and smile the age old being he had found himself accidentally meeting.

Not the nice gentleman who had seen a harbinger of death and called her _lovely_.

She didn’t know what this feeling was that had suddenly flooded her but she did know what she would do with it.

Her eyes took on a steely glint as they continued to lock with the moon, no longer questioning but resolute in her new found decision.

That human was not dying on her watch, no matter if it was meant to be or not.

Death would not have him.

Not today.

And not for a very long time.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: People asked about the banshee over on tumblr, so I had to write the banshee.  
> ...I’ve fallen for the banshee ngl. God this felt oddly sweet considering harbinger of death...gonna go torment you all with an angst fic next.


End file.
